Open The Dialogue

Website, Facebook, Twitter and How to Use Them

Guy Kawasaki interviews Dan Zarrella on how to use social media.  Key insights for companies include: when to implement a Facebook presence, the difference between a retweet and a Digg, and so on.

What are Company Obligations Under FTC Endorsement Guidelines

This article specifically addresses the issues at play for a company, its employees and any affiliated organizations under the new FTC endorsement guidelines.  Documentation of steps taken to comply with the guidelines is key to any future enforcement action.

The Evolution of Social Media Marketing to Social Business Design

David Armano and Jeff Dachis talk about social media marketing’s evolution in becoming integrated into all aspects of a business.  This is the creation of a social business model.  They provide early examples in the accompanying slide presentation but also some of the challenges they also pose.  This is as much a change to the approach to social media as it is to the way a business is organized.

Socialnomic’s Social Media ROI Video

Here’s a great video by Socialnomics on Social Media ROI that features one of our clients, Volkswagen, which with the help of MWW Group, launched its GTI exclusively through an iPhone/iPod Touch app.

Check it out:

Given that the next 48 hours marks the final days of shopping sanity for while, it seems like a good opportunity to talk quickly about social shopping.

A recent study by Deloitte showed that 17% of consumers would use social media during their holiday shopping. Just over one-half of that group was ages 18 to 29.  The graph to the right shows the breakdown from there.

Maybe more significantly, Deloitte showed that:

• More than one in five (22 percent) consumers anticipate they will shop primarily online this year and
• 44 percent of shoppers expecting to use a coupon they obtained online.
• 39 percent) indicating they often read consumer-generated reviews of stores or products online, and
• 25 percent) saying they will likely purchase a product this holiday season based on an online recommendation.

Similarly, E-marketer reported on a study that showed that while relatively few  (7%) online shoppers who plan to both research and buy holiday gifts online this year will look for ideas on sites such as Facebook, nearly one-half (45%) will use social networks to research items, compare prices and look for offers.

Mashable categorized social shopping into a few buckets- the most important of which, especially given the stats above are:  instantaneous product reviews, real time deals, and group gifting.  For products and brands – especially during the mayhem of holiday season –it is more important than ever to rise above the clutter and create incentives for shopping and recommending.

Social platforms like Facebook and Twitter provide quick and easy ways to promote customized deals and amplify those positive real-time product reviews.  While community-based shopping sites tend to fall into two categories.  Group gift sites, like eDivvy and others make it easier for cash-strapped consumers to make bigger ticket gifts, and curated gift sites, like StyleHive, and even Best Buy’s community forums that allow for highly personalized, recommendation-based gift ideas.

And with that – let the Black Friday games begin!

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) held hearings for the last two days on the issue of drug promotion on the internet and social media.  Of key concern – drug ads on Google and elsewhere were missing critical health side-effects information which is mandatory in other media formats such as print, radio and television.  To help clarify the issue, heavy weights such as Google, Yahoo and Pfizer testified to present their case in addressing these concerns.

As we saw it, there are two different, but related, issues at play here, including:

1.) How drug companies can advertise on the internet:

Due to the nature of the medium (i.e., small website banners and sponsored search links) companies such as Google, Yahoo and various pharmaceutical companies are urging the FDA to provide a direction on how to appropriately inform consumers of the drug’s health risks.  Google and the pharmaceutical industry have provide suggestions that include links back to informative web properties; both the WSJ Health Blog and NPR’s Health Blog delve deeper into this story.

2.) What role pharma companies will play in social media regarding how drug information is discussed:

The big issue at hand is how pharma companies must disclose health risks while remaining conversational on social media (i.e., Twitter, Facebook and blogs).  One issue that resonated was control on user edited sites like Wikipedia; these sites provide less control for brands to manage what the users add or delete from drug information.  As such, pharmaceutical reps are arguing that they should be held accountable for only information under their direct control, such as company websites.  More information on this story can be found on NextGov. Some interesting thinking on addressing both of these concerns by Pharma Marketing News and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufactures of America, as reported by redOrbit: “Online pharmaceutical-marketing expert John Mack of Pharma Marketing News, recommended that the FDA take the unprecedented step of mandating that drug manufacturers put “tags” on their Twitter posts in order to monitor and potentially censor discussions about specific products.  A similar suggestion was made earlier in the week by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America representative Jeffrey Francer, in which he encouraged the FDA to require a standard safety logo for drug-related Web content that would link consumers to an official FDA-approved website with information about the medication in question.”

As marketers, for any campaign or program, clearly we need to be mindful in how we create online ad campaigns and how we develop social media strategy to ensure proper discloser of drug health risks. We are strong proponents in the value of social media in providing access to health related information and connecting with others of similar conditions.  In fact, social media is the perfect tool to being an informed patient, which, we believe, can help in better treatments and care.  However, social media is no substitute to consulting with our doctors about what is the best course of treatment for whatever ails us.

We’ll continue to monitor this news and share updates and thinking along the way.

The professional online networking service, LinkedIn announced yesterday that it will be integrating its services with the microblogging phenom, Twitter allowing users of both services to sync their tweets and “network updates” on LinkedIn. Users can further share information through a “tweet this” box that will post their LinkedIn updates to Twitter and while on Twitter, users can add the established hashtags of #in or #li to posts in order for their tweets to appear on their LinkedIn profiles. And if that wasn’t integration enough, a new app called Tweets, lets users put their Twitter stream on their LinkedIn profiles.

So what does this mean? According to Allen Blue, LinkedIn cofounder and vice-president of product strategy in a his blog post, the two services go together like peanut butter and chocolate. As discussed in this video, this integration further allows a user to amplify their professional identity and brand by broadcasting their messages via Twitter.

This also means that if you choose to participate in integrations like this, you must continue to “Think before you Tweet” and keep your personal and professional brand top of mind.

Nikon — a long-standing MWW Group Client — kicked off an online video festival today to celebrate the HD video capture feature on the Nikon D5000.  The Festival encourages people to submit a short 140-second video on www.nikonfestival.com/ that captures their experience within the festival theme: “A Day Through Your Lens.”

Submissions will be judged by Rainn Wilson, iJustine, Chase Jarvis and the online community.

The best part? The first prize winner — the Judges Award — will receive $100,000 and a D5000 kit. The submission that receives the most video views and highest consumer rating wins the Audience Award — $25,000 and a D5000 Kit.

I think Nikon will learn a lot about how people  use and enjoy their cameras during this  two month campaign.  Not just through the videos created, but in the dialogue on the Twitter and Facebook properties.  Better yet, this a compelling way to talk about the camera features and enable people to share creative thinking. The art and technology combination.

Pretty cool.